A week or so ago, while the weather was still reasonably comfortable, I decided to experiment with making an earthen finish plaster. I settled on ingredients and a recipe for my earthen plaster mix relatively easily after talking to others who have done plastering here at Dancing Rabbit in the past.
When all of your energy comes from the sun, and the sun don’t shine for a week, that means there ain’t no power to keep this blog updated.
So. Anyway. Building is definitely winding down and pretty much done for the season. I will put up a few more entries detailing the last of my cob building exploits for the year, and then I will slowly enter hibernation mode.
I would like to keep this blog rolling in the off season, so I am considering creative ways of keeping relevant and fresh content coming even while I’m not working on my house. We shall see.
Nevertheless, expect a little bit about my earthen plastering experience and winterproofing the house in the near future.
Recently, I wrote an article about building earthen floors for Green Building Elements. Earthen floors are commonplace in straw bale and cob buildings, but they can also be installed in more typical suburban homes.
Check out the full article here: Natural Building 101: How to build an earthen or adobe floor.
And now… how to build an earthen floor:
When I began building, I decided to leave the topsoil in my house instead of hauling it out. I guess mostly to avoid the extra labor, really.
Over the months, it has become quite tamped and solid from continually walking on it. I decided to leave it as is, with the original slope of the land, supposing that any moisture that does happen to get in there (which it shouldn’t) will run out towards the drainage trench.
I will be headed out of Dancing Rabbit in three short weeks to go back to New Jersey for the holidays. Within the past couple of weeks, I have accepted the fact that I will not absolutely “finish” the house before that time. By “finish”, I mean complete the roof, finish the floor, make my rocket stove and cob bed and bench, and plaster the interior.
So. I’ve done some prioritizing. Now that the cob walls are complete, and the windows and door are in, the house is sealed. My biggest remaining priority is the roof – I need to construct an edge board around the roof, create a soil-retaining system, and have soil moved to my site and load it onto the roof. Oh, and seed the soil, too. That’s not a small load of work by any means!
Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks:
Finishing the cob walls – it was very tight having to work so closely to the roof.
Installing windows – all of the windows I purchased were some kind of replacement windows – they all had a vinyl exterior trim which we screwed into the window frames.
The past week or so has been quite eventful. There’s been mostly positive progress, but some negative, too.
Cobbing complete!
With Karen’s and my dad’s help, I completed cobbing. The walls are finally done! In just a few days, the gap between the walls and the roof was closed. It was very satisfying to see the final line of the wall meet the decking of the roof. It was awkward work having to stuff the small spaces, but it wasn’t too bad…
Before the EPDM went on the roof, I wanted to add a cushion of cardboard on top of the rafters and decking to protect the membrane. And before the cardboard went on, I wanted to add some kind of fabric so that the cardboard would not be visible from inside of the space. I bought a 50 yard bolt of muslin for $50 at Zimmerman’s, and Karen (my current work exchanger) and I draped the fabric and stapled it to the decking.
A few nights ago, a flash of brilliance struck during a conversation after dinner about making a frame for a future skylight in my reciprocal roof. We were sitting around, thinking of alternatives to making a wood frame, which would have proved quite difficult considering the irregular nature (14 uneven round poles) of the top of the roof.
And then someone mentioned a tire. And then I remembered the huge tractor tires we have lying around on the property, and amazingly enough, the dimensions were nearly perfect: a five foot diameter tire with a three foot diameter hole, perfect for the 4.5 foot diameter rafter ring, and 3.5 foot diameter hole in the roof.
I finished decking my reciprocal roof yesterday. I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out. It got a little funky trying to nail dimensional lumber up and around some of the knots of wood on the rafters, but overall, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it might be. It was more time-consuming than anything.
Next up: making a frame for the skylight in the middle of the roof. This will be interesting…
About The Year of Mud
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This blog is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. Since 2012, we’ve been hosting Natural Building Workshops so you can learn essential skills to build your own natural home.
